Hello,
My husband (Regis) and I (Noreen) are an older couple and had had enough of life in a stressful, polluted environment. So in the Fall of 2008 we sold our house in Southern Ontario and bought an old, neglected 42 acre farm in Northern Ontario. We are "semi-retired". I am trying my hand at organic gardening and year-round greenhouse for our own organic veggies. Regis is a "jack-of-all trades" and has just about every tool you can imagine for auto mechanics, welding, wood working and general "messing around" and he is quite willing to show you how to use them.

Our 2 children are both grown and gone. Our daughter is married, and has a daughter of her own who starts Grade 1 in Sept 2011. Our son was "living the life" in Australia, working maintenance at an island resort on the Great Barrier Reef but is now back in Canada working at a lodge in Jasper, Alberta with no interest in joining us in our new, boring, way of life, away from the hustle and bustle of "civilization".

This is a SMOKING household. In your first email, PLEASE state that you are OK with this.

Northern Ontario

Being in the north means we are usually still knee deep in snow until March and even as late as early April. (2011 saw piles of snow into late April and snow still in the woods until mid-May) Our outdoor work can't begin until the end of April or early May and might go as late as the end of October.

Age is starting to catch up with us (me especially) so basically, we need someone who will be part of our family to help out with the day-to-day activities of our home, the garden, the turkeys (beginning of June to mid-August), lawn care, getting the house readied for winter and getting firewood in for the winter. We do OK by ourselves in the winter because other than keeping the wood stove going, there's very little else to do.

Having been neglected for many years, the farm and house needed a lot of work. The house shifted from frost heaving and still needs to be levelled off somehow (a practical, affordable solution has not yet been found). The trailer addition, on the back of the house, also shifts every year and has to be re-levelled prior to winter.

Our 2009 garden was late getting in because of a late and extremely wet spring. Our 2010 garden was much better. The greeenhouse was built in October 2010 so I was able to get a bit of a jump on the growing season, but a couple late frosts in June either killed or stunted everything I had transplanted. I kept some tomatoes, peppers and beans in the greenhouse for just this possibility. I've worked in an office all my life so this has been a learning experience for me.

Because of some major delays in 2009, the greenhouse did not get built until Fall 2010 and the new woodshed has been put off indefinitely. For now we are making do with an old addition on the side of the garage.

The exterior of the house needs more painting, the side porch needs to be taken off and re-built. The old, diseased Red Willow trees have all been taken down (as of Oct 2010) and the wood stacked for drying, now it has to be made more accesible to the garage for the woodstove. We raised turkeys in summer 2010 and it worked out well, so we got more young ones delivered in June 2011. Last year we slaughtered on our property with help from friends but it was a LOT of work, so this year I booked them in at the local abatoir (butchery). This also meant we could sell them to the public, which we did except for a few we kept for ourselves.

Of course it doesn't matter how much there is to do outside, there are always the everyday chores that need to be kept up too - cooking, bread making, cleaning, groceries, laundry etc. When we have volunteers to help with the garden and lawn care, I can manage around the house but with no help I am finding it increasingly difficult.

Regis is willing to show you how to use the woodworking equipment and you are welcome to work on a personal project. One of our volunteers made some juggling batons, a couple others made a game board for the marble game we play, another created a woodburned eagle crest for above the garage door and row markers for the garden and others made scroll saw or wood burned wall plaques to take home with them. Our volunteer, this spring, made a really unique chair.

In the evening you are welcome to join us - relax, make a bonfire, play a game or play cards or just sit, read a good book or do a crossword, play guitar or answer your emails (we have wireless DSL high-speed if you have a laptop or we have an old laptop you can use also). Because we haven't bothered with satellite, we don't have T.V. connection but we watch programs/movies on the computer.

Please see all the photos of our place and our previous volunteers at the Windows Live link under the contact tab.

Oh, and don't expect either of us to get up very early, so if you are an early riser, set the coffee and we'll be up shortly. ;D

English and Regis also speaks French

21 ft trailer (non-smoking) sleeps 2 singles or a couple; 2 rooms in the house and lots of room for tents. Prefer you have your own sleeping bag, but we have extras and lots of bed pillows and warm blankets if it's cold.

This is a SMOKING household. We both smoke and so do most of our friends. If you contact us, please indicate that you are OK with the smoking. We keep the trailer smoke-free for guests'/volunteers' sleeping quarters.
Our meals are non-vegetarian, but if you prefer something else, I can certainly take you shopping and you can let me know what you want (within reason of course). When the garden is producing, we eat a LOT of veggies. I am in the process of researching all the wild herbs and medicinal plants in the area. We could make a very nice salad just from all the plants I'm finding on the property. We are not religous but do not discourage others from practising and will gladly drive you to church if you wish.